Kate’s Kitchen

Supported by: Annan Old Church of Scotland

Kate's Kitchen operates a café drop-in centre for local people in Annan. They provide a warm environment where people of all ages can come together and find friendship and support – as well as good food. Volunteers help run the café. These are often folk who have benefited from their experience of coming to the café and want to make a contribution. This is empowerment in action. Kate's Kitchen is great at partnership working and has built strong relationships with other agencies because they know they can't do this work alone.

Wish you were here?

"An eighteen year old young man came to the Kitchen with his girlfriend. He was homeless; he had very little in the way of personal possessions and badly needed new boots as his current footwear leaked. He was unemployed but also sanctioned for not turning up to a meeting and not doing enough job searching. The priority was to get him shelter, so an appointment was made with the homeless officer to start resolving the housing issue. Then an application was submitted to the Holywood Trust to fund the purchase of some new clothing. We then could begin to look at employment and education possibilities; to set up a routine so that he would not be sanctioned again. The difference this made to the young man was fairly dramatic. He had dry feet on a wet day, he could go out with clean clothes on, he had his own supported house to go back to at night and he has not been sanctioned since. This means he does not go deeper into debt just to survive and that he can plan how he spends his money."

Go For It Fund

Kate's Kitchen received a Main Grant from the Go For It Fund in 2014. Main Grants are available for up to £90,000 over three years.